“The magnitude of what could happen to our country if we were to actually go over this cliff cannot be overstated. Every American who pays income taxes would be hit with an increase. Taxes on capital gains and dividends would ratchet up by 59 percent and 189 percent respectively, delivering a blow to American companies that create jobs and to the millions of Americans who rely on investment income for their retirement.”

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

“The second thing that’s very damaging is to layer all of this tax that he wants to layer on investment, on capital gains and dividends. Do you know, as an owner of a business, your business pays tax, a corporate income tax that can be as high as 35 percent. And then the president wants any dividend that’s paid to that owner to be then taxed at an additional rate of up to 40 percent—a combined 75 percent tax on investment. That’s going to drive capital overseas; it’s going to prevent investment in America. It’s terrible economic policy.”

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA)

MSNBC Morning Joe” • February 14, 2012

“I think that more and more Americans are investors and when you have more investors, you have more people who understand the rates at which capital gains and dividends are taxed and why they are taxed at lower rates. It's to create more investment. We want to get people back to work in this country, we want people to invest money, and that's why capital gains tax rates are where they are. We happen to believe that if we're going to get people back to work and if we're going to grow jobs, that we've got to have tax reform, we've got to have good tax policies, but we've got to keep the rates down on people who create jobs.”

Senator John Thune (R-SD)

Fox Business Network” • January 24, 2012

“ Q: What tax and spending policies should we be pursuing?

A: Keep the capital-gains tax low. It would be a good idea not to raise the withholding tax. I think what the president is trying to do is noble, but when we’re trying to jump-start the economy, I’m not sure that it wouldn’t be better to let private industry do it rather than the government.”

Ian Schrager, Hotelier and Real Estate Developer

The Daily Beast “Ian Schrager on the Economy and Obama’s Prospects” December 12, 2011

“As noted earlier, one important exception that I would make to my general base case of allowing the 2001-2003 individual tax discounts to lapse relates to the tax burden on dividend income. Keeping that tax at the same rate as the rate of long-term capital gains rather than allowing it to revert to the tax rate on ordinary income, is highly desirable for the simple reason that it will not distort corporate dividends policy...”

Edward D. Kleinbard, Professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law

Tax Notes Special Report “The Role of Tax Reform in Deficit Reduction” • November 28, 2011

“The other feature of our tax-piracy tax code Democrats don't understand is multiple taxation of capital. Capital income is not taxed once, but four times, by individual income tax, corporate income tax, capital gains tax and the death tax, which Democrats insisted on raising from zero percent to 35 percent.

“The lower capital gains tax rate is not an unfair loophole as compared with the higher income tax rates paid by middle-class earners. Capital gains tax is paid on top of the income tax, just at the front end in addition to the income tax that will paid when the income to the capital asset is earned in the future
”

Peter Ferrara, Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute

May 15, 2011

“...this year the House Republican majority should pass a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts. Even that is just a beginning. To touch off a boom -- and secure a prosperous future for all Americans -- what's really needed are additional, sweeping rate cuts on both individual and corporate income”

Newt Gingrich and Peter Ferrara, "Make the Bush Tax Cuts Permanent"

The Wall Street Journal • March 16, 2011

“If Congress allows the current tax rate on long-term capital gains and dividends to increase it will ultimately have a negative impact on a family’s reinvestment in the company and overall economic activity.”

Ann Kinkade, president of Family Enterprise USA

The Hill’s On the Money Blog • June 14, 2011

“The most important thing we can do to promote our long-term growth is to improve the quality of education, to invest in innovation, and to rebuild America's infrastructure. Without these investments, America will be weaker and less competitive.”

“As part of this strategy for growth, the president proposes reforms to our tax system designed to encourage investment. We propose to put in place a permanent and expanded tax credit for research and development in the United States, to eliminate -- to eliminate -- capital gains on investments in small businesses, to encourage advance manufacturing and clean energy technologies, to keep taxes on investment income -- dividends and capital gains -- low, to reform and extend the Build America bond program, and to make college more affordable for middle-class Americans”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

House Ways and Means Committee Hearing • February 2011

“The long-term strength of an economy is its long-term level of savings and investment,” “We have got a shortage of savings. The higher tax rates will incrementally shift incentives away from savings and investment to consumption. If Washington wants to tax the rich, he said, it should tax their consumption. Tax their yachts and their Cape Cod estates,” he said.

Mark Bloomfield, president of the American Council for Capital Formation

Investor’s Business Daily • March 23, 2010

“Tax increases...The large effect stems in considerable part from a powerful negative effect of tax increases on investment.”

Christina Romer, current Chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors

November, 2006

“Even if higher rates are limited to upper-income taxpayers, it could spark a reversal in corporate dividend policy that would once again push companies away from paying dividends. That, in turn, would leave income-hungry investors little choice but to sell stocks and seek other ways of finding the cash they need.”

Dan Caplinger

The Motley Fool • April 29, 2010

“Such a dividend tax change is bad news for the stock market. Equities have value in part because they pay dividends. That dividend taxes reduce firm value is, by now, well established. And higher dividend taxes will reduce dividends and increase investors required return. That means a higher cost of capital for investment, just when we really need that investment. And increasing the tax bias against equity as the administration proposes, will encourage leverage. On the heels of the financial crisis, this is perverse.”

Professor Glenn Hubbard, Graduate School of Business at Columbia University

PBS Nightly Business Report • April 26, 2010

“That’s why it is so important that we help small business struggling to open, or stay open, during these difficult times. Building on the tax cuts in the Recovery Act, we’re proposing a complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment along with an extension of write-offs to encourage small businesses to expand in the coming year.”

President Barack Obama

Speech to the Brookings Institute • December 9, 2009

“I hear from senior citizens who share with me how they are getting through these trying times… One thing many of our seniors say, again and again, is that dividend income is a regular stream of income they depend on, and that we should keep taxes on this income low...millions of seniors rely on a steady stream of dividend income in their retirement.”

Rep. Ron Klein

The Hill • March 1, 2010

“If the tax on dividends is allowed to revert to ordinary income tax there will likely be a reduction in federal tax revenue... More importantly, stock price volatility will inevitably increase, again whipsawing the middle-American family, whose savings and retirement nest eggs will oscillate greatly and unpredictably, affecting individual lives quite directly.”

Professor Louis E. Lataif, Boston University School of Management

The Boston Globe • April 7, 2006

“The capital gains rate is crucial to investment decisions; higher rates make capital more expensive, dampening incentives to invest and reducing economic growth. John F. Kennedy understood this, as he proposed a capital gains tax cut. Bill Clinton joined with Republicans in 1997 to sign legislation lowering the rate to 20 percent from 28 percent.”

Wall Street Journal Editorial • April 5, 2008

“At a minimum capital gains and dividend rates should remain tied together to prevent investors from making decisions based on tax policy rather than a company's fundamentals...In other words, an investor might shy away from a high dividend-paying firm if the tax rate is higher than on capital gains.”

Rep. Jim McCrery

Congress Daily • March 23, 2010

“At times I am happy when Congress does nothing. But in this case, doing nothing will increase taxes and damage the economy.”

Lee E. Ohanian

Norwalk Reflector • April 14, 2010

“I don't want another period in which retirees see their nest eggs shrink, entrepreneurs can't access capital, and a tottering economy takes a body blow it shouldn't have to”

Mark Bloomfield, president of the American Council for Capital Formation

Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2010

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